Don't Miss Movies: Our May Picks

by Alison Bailes and Susan Toepfer

Bernie

Shirley MacLaine commands the screen as a bitter Southern belle in the hilariously quirky Bernie. Evoking her most iconic grande dame roles (Steel Magnolias, Terms of Endearment), she plays a wealthy widow befriended by a sensitive young mortician—a wonderful Jack Black. Matthew McConaughey’s DA adds comic intensity, but the stars are almost upstaged by real-life townsfolk in this mockumentary by director Richard Linklater. (Opening April 27)

Peace, Love & Misunderstanding

Jane Fonda revives the ’60s in Bruce Beresford’s Peace, Love, & Misunderstanding, playing Grace, a septuagenarian Woodstock hippie. When her estranged lawyer daughter (Catherine Keener) shows up with two teenagers—the grandchildren Grace has never met— she welcomes them with an open heart and an even more open mind, dispensing sex advice and weed. Fonda has never looked more fabulous or provoked more laughter. (Opening June 8)